Approximately one-half of the United States' coastal wetland habitat has been lost to commercial and agricultural development. Due to this development, it is calculated that thousands of tons of nutrient-rich, storm water run-off flows from developed areas into coastal waters and has been identified as a primary cause of algae blooms. Excessive amounts of algae in the water can cloud the water, thus shading seagrasses from sunlight and consequently leading them to death. Certain coastal areas, in particular in Florida, have lost significant amounts of seagrasses, ranging from 30% to as high as 95%.
Destruction of the natural marine habitats is detrimental to the production, growth, and survival of marine animals therein, and consequently the losses of these natural habitats have been identified as the leading cause for the decline in marine resource populations. In addition, a growing human population, coupled with the health benefits of seafood, have increased fishing pressures to a point where numerous fisheries throughout the world have collapsed, leading to fishery closure and multi-million dollar negative impacts on the seafood industry.
As given in the Miriam-Webster Dictionary, an ecosystem is defined as "the complex of a community and its environment functioning as a unit in nature"; while ecology is defined as "1: a branch of science concerned with the interaction of organisms and their environment . . . 2: the pattern of relations between organisms and their environment. As given in The Restoration of Aquatic Ecosystems National Academy Press, Washington, DC, 1992, "restoration" is defined as "the return of an ecosystem to a close approximation of its condition prior to disturbance. In restoration, ecological damage to the resource is repaired. Merely recreating form without the function, or the function in an artificial configuration bearing little resemblance to a natural resource, does not constitute restoration. The goal is to emulate a natural, functioning, self-regulating system that is integrated with the ecological landscape in which it occurs."
Thus, there exists an ever increasing need to develop artificial marine habitat systems that function (1) to offset damage caused to the marine environment by past and new commercial coastal development, by the impact of bridges/causeways, and by commercial fishing; (2) to neutralize the impact of water pollution caused by cities; and (3) to aid in re-populating the oceans with various crustaceans, such as lobsters, crabs, oysters and other mollusks and various fishes.